Expanding use of vessel tracking technology in fisheries management
No-take zones offer a range of benefits, including rebuilding of depleted fish populations998 and faster recovery of fish and coral communities following cyclones and coral bleaching. However, many commercial, charter and recreational fishers continue to operate in contravention of the Great Barrier Reef Zoning Plan 2003 (for example, fishing illegally). Given cumulative pressures are affecting the Reef’s resilience, the benefits of protecting no-take zones by enhancing compliance are now more important than ever.
Electronic vessel tracking (also known as vessel monitoring systems or VMS) has been widely adopted in Australia and around the world, and is used very successfully as a means to monitor commercial fishing vessel activity. The vessel tracking units fitted to vessels transmit regular positional information via a satellite network to a computer system. The positional information can then be displayed and analysed.
Vessel tracking became mandatory in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl fishery in 2001. Monitoring and analysis of vessel tracking data led to a number of successful prosecutions and significantly reduced the number of instances of vessels fishing within no-take zones. The Queensland Sustainable Fisheries Strategy 2017–2027 was released in June 2017. Its reform commitments included an expansion of vessel tracking to all commercial fisheries by 2020, including installing vessel tracking units in the net, line and crab fisheries (including tenders and dories) by the end of 2018.Implementing this component of the strategy led to a legal requirement for vessel tracking in these fisheries coming into effect on 1 January 2019. Improved compliance with Marine Park zoning is expected as a result.
Read more in our 2019 Outlook Report
Benefits of zoning and importance of compliance
Since the rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 2004, a growing body of research has reported important ecosystem benefits arising from the expansion of no-take zones. As the Reef faces a range of pressures and impacts that threaten its health and future, no-take zoning and user compliance is more important than ever. However, during the 2016 and 2017 bleaching, zoning did not protect reefs from extreme temperatures due to climate change.
Reefs in no-take and no-entry zones have a greater density and biomass of fishes targeted by fishers than reefs in zones open to fishing. A wider ecosystem and fisheries benefit of this protection comes from the spread of targeted fish larvae out of no-take zones, and the ‘spillover’ contribution to stocks in areas open to fishing. Fish in no-take zones are larger and more numerous, and may make a considerable contribution to sustaining populations in fished areas. This spillover effect is important in educating fishers about the importance of compliance because it demonstrates the benefits they gain personally from no‑take areas and encourages them to report non-compliance.
Other ecosystem benefits of no-take zones in the Reef include lower levels of coral disease (potentially as a result of reduced damage to coral tissue from fishing activity) and fewer and less severe crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks (potentially due to increasing densities of predators of young starfish762). Long-term monitoring data has indicated that reefs in no-take zones have a more stable community structure. Whether these findings remain following broadscale coral mortality from back-to-back bleaching events remains to be seen. However, research has shown that the magnitude of disturbance from impacts, such as a single coral bleaching event, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, coral disease and cyclones, was 30 per cent lower in no-take zones, and reefs recovered 20 per cent faster than nearby reefs that are open to fishing.
The differences in fish biomass between no-take zones and zones open to fishing suggests that most users comply with zoning. However, non-compliance remains a significant problem with 500–600 zoning offences involving recreational and commercial fishing recorded by the Marine Park Authority each year. Lost fishing lines have been recorded in substantial quantities in no-take zones1357 and social surveys estimated that three to 18 per cent of recreational fishers fished in a no-take zone during the preceding year. Illegal fishing in no-take zones can reduce targeted fish densities significantly and is limiting the full potential of the ecological and fishery benefits of the Zoning Plan.
There is strong evidence for the importance and effectiveness of the Zoning Plan in maintaining ecosystem health and supporting the Reef’s resilience and recovery. These, and perhaps other as yet unidentified benefits, may be crucial to the Reef’s long-term health and survival. Minimising the impacts of illegal fishing and other zoning non-compliance is vital, and the recent funding and technology-related enhancements to compliance and enforcement capability in the Marine Park are an important and valuable investment in the future of the Reef.
Read more in our 2019 Outlook Report
